A Taste of Loneliness
by Double Winks and a Pistol
Summary: He's been trying, he really has and yet, it just seems that Marui Bunta can not find anyone to love. It's really tearing him apart, but he's not the only one who's getting torn apart. Niou is going crazy over the changes of his friend. YAOI. NOT xOC STORY
1. Chapter 1

He looked like nothing the pink haired boy expected. He had sharp, beady silver eyes, a long pointy nose, sharp looking teeth, a thick mustache that curved upwards at the ends, a really pointy goatee that looked like it could be took off and used as a weapon and not to mention, crows feet. Marui blinked.

"So you're… Hanamaru Itayushi? (1)" The creepy man nodded, "Well I can see why you're on a dating site, pretty desperate huh?" he nodded once again, "Well I honestly thought you were more attractive online."

"I get that comment all the time." Marui looked down and puffed out his cheeks.

"Whelp, I'm going home, sorry guy." He nodded.

"Its fine, I'm used to it." They both turned to leave.

- (Rikkaidai High school - clubroom)

"Still partner searching?" Yukimura asked in amusement as the pink haired boy groggily slid down into his seat.

"He_ has_ a partner Yukimura; he's looking for a mate." Jackal said in defense; Marui needed no other partner; in Jackal's eyes, Marui was _his _doubles partner, no one else's, they could have him as a lover but not as a doubles partner. Jackal glared into the air as he thought that fact over.

"Sorry Jackal, are you still, _boyfriend _searching?" Marui sneered; more at himself than anything else, and slid down into the seat some more.

"I think I'm just going to give up, really what's the point anymore?"

"Funny you should ask that Marui," Sanada said walking into the room.

"What do you mean, Sanada?" Marui asked staring at the man.

"What I mean is-, it's FUKUBUCHOU!" Marui snickered, "Anyway, what I mean is that, why should you have a boyfriend, you're fine by yourself aren't you?"

"Wow Genichirou, you're actually putting yourself in other people's lives huh? That's new." Yukimura said, chuckling at himself afterwards. Sanada glared at him but then realized what he was doing was life-threatening then put his glare onto Jackal instead, confusing the poor half-Brazilian boy.

"It will probably interfere with his tennis." Was all he said before leaving the room.

"Well, I understand why you're doing this Marui!" Niou said popping in through the window.

"W-T-F!" The three in the room yelled in unison.

"You're looking for weird people to date online because you're feeling self conscious about your body and-," Marui shut the window before he could continue.

"Anyway," Marui started, sounding a little exhausted, "I'm going to be meeting someone else tonight, I'm a little worried though, the person last night looked like a pedophile so I left."

"That's good that you left, Bunta." Yukimura said smiling at him, "if you want, I could come with you tonight." Marui shook his head.

"Naw, that would be a little weird don't ya think?" Yukimura looked up in a questioning way.

"Well, I could hide in a tree or something, Jackal could come too." Jackal looked at him with a confused face.

"Me!" He asked pointing towards himself.

"What, you don't want to go?" The two asked him at the same time.

"W-Well I mean… fine, I'll go." Marui shook his head.

"Wait a second, I think I'll be fine though, nothings happened yet-," Once again the door opened revealing a sweating Sanada.

"That doesn't mean nothing _could _happen." The three looked at him, they just stared, not saying a word, they just…. stared…

"Why are you sweating?" Yukimura asked breaking the awkward silence.

"Oh uh, Niou lit a leaf on fire and, um, that's not important right now, Marui, you must be careful when meeting these people-,"

"I know, I know." Marui interrupted, "It's just; I'm pretty desperate right now… I'm tired of feeling alone."

"You're not alone!" Jackal yelled feeling offended. Marui sighed.

"I mean sexual relationship wise." Yukimura's eyes widened.

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, wait a second, you mean you're meeting these people… to have sex with them?" Sanada walked out.

"Well I don't actually mean that, I just want someone to love…" Marui sighed and looked down, "Never mind, you wouldn't understand…" at that moment the door opened once again to reveal the white haired trickster.

"Of course I understand, Marui." He said smirking at the boy, "its all clear to me now."

"Go away Niou, you don't know anything." Marui snapped glaring up at him, "I really don't feel like playing with you right now, I'm depressed." The petenshi feigned a sad face.

"I'm just trying to help you out." He batted his eyes.

"Well it's not working," Marui sighed and started towards the door, "I'm going to go run some laps." Everyone, including Niou, mostly Niou; was shocked at the rare occurrence, really, Marui was actually going to run laps, just for the heck of it!

"Poor Marui, he must really be depressed." Yukimura said giving the space where Marui was just standing a look of pity.

Niou frowned, this wasn't his friend, he would never-; no, this was _not _his Marui Bunta, this guy was an impersonation, it was an alien that just wanted to know how human life works, yeah that's what it is, because surely that guy is _not _his best friend.

The spiky haired boy looked back at the door and stared at the boy who was about to start his laps, no, it couldn't be his friend.

- (In front of a random restaurant, 5:46 PM)

Marui sighed as he finally got to his destination, it seemed he was a few minuets early; no one was there yet to meet him. He frowned to himself, what was he doing with his life? That's what he thought as he sat himself down onto the curb of the side walk.

"I'm pathetic…" He placed his head down into his head, he heard the sound of bushes rustling across the street; no cars were driving at the time so he could hear it, yes he probably has good hearing, he looked up but saw nothing.

He grinned to himself as he started thinking about squirrels; it was then when he noticed someone was standing beside him.

He looked up and saw a man with large glasses, a small mustache growing on his upper lip; he had on a striped shirt that was tucked messily into his jeans, and one sock had clouds on it while the other was stripes; you could tell because one pant leg was pulled up really high while the other was pulled up only a little lower than the other.

"C-Can I help you?" Marui asked looking up at him.

"Yes, could you direct me to the Natural Beauty Salon?" He asked, Marui blinked, "I have to get my hair fixed." He continued pointing to his rat nest hair.

"Um yeah… it's over there… I think…" He looked and smiled revealing an abnormal gap in his bottom teeth.

"Oh thank you very much! My girlfriend will be so shocked when she sees the new me!" He cheered running over to the salon.

'_Oh my god I can't believe it, that goof ball can get a girlfriend but I can't even get a boyfriend? Really? Something is not right here!' _Marui sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, he could have sworn he heard snickering coming from the bush. "Oh great, now the squirrels are laughing at me."

- (Rikkaidai High school – hallways)

"I take it your date didn't show up last night?" Yukimura asked looking at Marui in pity. Marui yawned and looked at him.

"How'd you guess?" Yukimura gave him a warm smile.

"Because you look terrible, not to mention Jackal, Akaya, and I were in the bushes across from you." Marui's eyes widened and he blinked.

"You mean those weren't squirrels…?" Yukimura chuckled and patted his back like a mother.

"No Marui, the snickering did not come from the squirrels." Marui bent down in shame.

"What do I do Yukimura, I'm so pathetic!" Yukimura frowned.

"Oh Pishaw, don't talk like that," he pulled the boy up until he was standing once more, "Hey I know what'll cheer you up, let's have a group outing tonight, it will be better for you to get away from the computer and stop trying to force yourself on other guys." At that moment Marui burst into tears.

"He didn't even _come _Yukimura!" he screeched, Yukimura sighed. Marui ran up and buried his face into the captain's shoulder, not even realizing that he was making him feel a little uncomfortable. Yukimura began awkwardly rubbing the boys back.

"Um… I know Marui… I know…. I was there…. And Jackal was too…. And Akaya...Even though he fell asleep…." Marui sobbed once more.

- (End Chapter)

(1) – lol I totally made that name up off the top of my head! X3


	2. Chapter 2

- (The Ice cream parlor 4:45 PM)

"Yay this is fun, this is fun right everyone?" Yukimura asked getting groans and unenthusiastic nods from everyone; well _almost _everyone. The group turned their head towards Marui who was sitting there, staring at nothing, his tongue was out and roaming freely over the ice cream, but yet it looked as if he couldn't even taste it.

"Marui-senpai, if you're just going to lick at that ice cream and look as if you don't even want it, you could have given it to me!" Kirihara whined earning a pat to the head from Yukimura which made him smile, and a smack to the face from Sanada which made him silently cry, oh and frown.

"I'll never get anyone… I'll be alone my entire life…. I'll never love anyone…" Niou rolled his eyes.

"Okay then, whatever you say Eeyore, or should I say, alien from another planet!" Niou stood up and pointed an accusing finger at the oblivious boy.

"Niou-kun!" Yagyuu scolded, "Please show a little more affection to Marui-kun, he's really depressed right now."

"But Yagyuu~," Niou whined, "That's not Marui, that's an alien from another world!" Sanada glared at him.

"Shut up Niou, you're starting to sound like Kirihara, no wait a second; you're starting to sound _worse_ than Kirihara." Yukimura and Yanagi decided it would be funny to sit back and record all of this to laugh at later.

"That's not funny Fukubuchou, I have feelings too!" Sanada glared at him

"SHUT UP!" Marui screamed at the top of his lungs startling everyone in the whole parlor, "GEEZ, ITS THE SAME THING EVERY FREAKING-," Marui stopped talking and looked down worrying the others, "hey look a penny, anyway where was I, oh yeah," he cleared his throat, "TIME WE GO OUT! I'M SICK OF IT!" He then got up and walked out.

"What the heck?" Niou asked, yep, he was definitely an alien.

- (Marui's bedroom, 6:56 PM – Marui's diary pages)

_Ugh, I can't find anyone to go out with, everyone is either too weird, or just stands me up and I'm sick of it, I'm sick of the same thing happening every damn day! I go to school, I go to tennis practice, I get bullied by Niou, I talk about my problems to Yukimura (I've been doing that a lot lately, I wonder if he's getting annoyed…) and then come home and get ready for a hopeless date that won't change anything, I'm about to cry!_

_Oh yeah, and it turns out I'm all out of gum so I need to go to the store and buy some… I really don't want to…_

_Date: … oh god… what's the date!_

- (Fudomine High school – Tennis practice with Rivals (1))

"Thanks for playing us!" everyone yelled as they shook hands.

"**Hey, you there, your name is Kamio right…?" **Kamio jumped back and screeched at the pink haired boy in front of him, he surely wasn't a sight for kids right now.

"Wha-What's wrong with you, Marui-san, you look awful!" He yelled, Marui had red eyes and dark bags underneath them, his lips looked chapped, and he had dried tear marks staining his cheeks.

"**Ah heh heh, you seem to be having a good life, you enjoy that life Kamio-kun; you enjoy that life well…." **At that point Kamio started crying because Marui was creeping him out with his demonic like voice; and it seemed Marui just transferred some of his depression onto him.

Sanada sighed at the scene before him. Tachibana came up to the Captain and vice captain with a worried expression on his face.

"Um… is your _tensai _alright?" Sanada just shook his head.

"Who knows…" The two answered in unison right when everyone near the tensai began crying and throwing themselves onto the ground saying they were no good for the person they were going out with at the moment.

- (Marui's bedroom, 8: 49 PM)

Marui typed in something on the computer, he began grinning a little.

"This is it…" he said to himself, "This guy, he is definitely the one!" he pressed enter to send the message. So far, this guy seemed more than perfect, he was in Japan which was good; he wasn't exactly in the same district but he said he could easily make it anywhere for a date, and he enjoyed tennis; which was an extra bonus for Marui.

Marui sighed in content and leaned back in his chair before he was engulfed in an uncomfortable; thanks to the chair, and yet comfortable; thanks to the other man, sleep.

- (Rikkaidai High School – The courts)

"I AM SATISFIED~" Marui yelled in a sing song voice as he skipped over to the other regulars; with a slight limp, causing the freshmen to scream and run away.

"I take it something good happened last night." Yukimura said smiling at him.

"According to that limp, you had sex, senpai." Yukimura glared at his Kouhei, silently scolding him, and managing to shut him up.

"No brat! But I did find someone and I'm meeting him tonight~" everyone groaned. "No, no listen guys, this guy is great! Listen to this, he plays tennis too! He's not exactly in the same district, -and I didn't exactly get his name-, but he said he could come and meet me here!" at that fact Yanagi coughed.

"Hmm, what's wrong, Renji?" Yukimura asked.

"Well, Marui, I do not want to burst your bubble or anything."

"OH MY GOD!" Yukimura suddenly shouted, "Don't tell me, you're the guy Marui was talking to!"

"No, that's not it, it's just, have you ever wondered that what if one of the people you're talking to is someone you know, or is someone who was from a rival team." The group got quiet.

"Wha-what are you talking about, Yanagi?" Marui asked, not really finding what he said amusing.

"Well I'm just saying, you said that they're in Japan and not in this district, _and _they play tennis, how do you know you're not talking to… Oshitari Yuushi or Sengoku Kiyosumi or… MIZUKI HAJIME!"

"Yanagi, that's stupid." Yukimura said glaring at the data keeper.

"Seriously, do you know how many people are in Japan? And not to mention, there is A LOT of people who play tennis too, geez, use your brain Yanagi." Yanagi sighed.

"I'm just saying…"

"Besides," Yagyuu started, "I can't really see Oshitari Yuushi on a date site." That statement caused giggles-, I mean chuckles, manly chuckles, throughout the group.

"Well, get back to practice you guys, I officially decided that we are spending WAY too much time on this topic, so, fifty laps everyone, then straight to pushups." That caused groans before they were off to work.

- (Random Restaurant #2, 5:34)

Marui sat down in a booth and nervously looked around. This time had to be successful, if it wasn't, he just didn't know what he would do, it actually pained him to think about it.

'_No, I must think positive, besides, what could go wrong?' _Marui sighed and placed his head down onto the table, his stomach had butterflies in it. He laid there for a little while longer when he felt a tap on his back, and as soon as he felt it, he shot straight up startling the person out of their wits.

"Um… can I get you anything sir?" a young girl asked timidly.

"Uh… I'm waiting for someone right now; you can come back when they're here." She nodded and quickly walked away.

Marui mentally laughed as he watched her, he scared that girl, ha-ha. After his mental snickering he decided to lie his head back down and let out a breath.

'_Please, please, don't let me get stood up again… my reputation is already shattered enough right now…' _He lied there, only seeing darkness, due to his eyes being closed, for a few more minutes when once again another tap appeared on his back. He shot up like a bullet once again only to see another figure jump in surprise, he sighed for the millionth time and closed his eyes.

"I already said I'm waiting for someone, come back later, gosh." A soft chuckle emerged from where the figure was standing and Marui's eyes shot open once more.

"Let me guess, you're 'The Tensai'?" Marui looked away suddenly embarrassed, well who wouldn't be. He looked up at the man with a smile on his face until his eyes widened and his smile drooped; once again, he looked away in shame.

"I-I thought you were straight… or something…. Sengoku…" Damn Yanagi and his smartness! It was probably him who planned this out anyway! He probably called up Sengoku one day and said, 'hey let's pull a trick on Marui' which causes this to happen! Marui frowned.

"Well actually… to be honest I sort of… thought you were just some over confident girl…" Sengoku replied taking the seat away from the pink haired boy. Marui chuckled; that girl that he scared was probably coming back over now.

"Hey, I'm manly; I'm nothing like a girl!" Marui glared at him. Sengoku gave him a funny look then turned his attention to the waitress that just came over.

"You're ready to order now, right?" she asked the two looking as if she had calmed herself down from what happened earlier. Sengoku nodded.

"Well actually, I'm not that hungry right now, but you guys sell milkshakes right?" At the word 'milkshakes', Marui perked up.

"MILKSHAKE PLEASE!" Marui yelled, "Chocolate would be great." The waitress giggled as she wrote it down.

"I'll have strawberry." Sengoku said in a more calm fashion.

"Okay then, I'll be right back you two!" And then she walked off, leaving Sengoku and Marui alone.

- (End)

**Freaking Déjà vu! I like seriously had a dream or a vision or something, of me writing (err typing) that down! D: **

**Chap. Three coming soon! ^^ **


	3. Chapter 3

After Marui and Sengoku finished off their awesome milkshakes, they decided to just go and play against each other and forget about the whole date thing.

After walking all the way to one of the street tennis courts, they spent about ten minutes laughing at themselves and each other since they forget they didn't bring rackets with them. Not to mention balls... tennis balls.

They sat down on a nearby bench and decided to just talk a little and maybe share other interests that they had other than tennis. They would have talked at the restaurant if they didn't feel so awkward at first.

"Well I'm also a boxer—not the dog kind-, as you can see by these sexy muscles." He flexed earning himself a loud, teasing laugh from Marui.

"Well other than tennis, I'm a video gamer so beat that, I bet you don't work your thumbs as much as I do!" after some more talking, teasing, and laughter, Marui let out a surprised gasp when he felt a quick drop of water land on the tip of his nose.

"Huh, oh it looks like it's about to rain." Sengoku observed.

"Hmmm, well I guess we could go to my house until the rain stops." Sengoku smiled at the suggestion.

"Okay, are you sure I won't be intruding?" Marui smiled back.

"Of course not!" Sengoku continued smiling and gave a half attempt of a shrug before following close behind Marui to go to his home.

- (Marui's house, front door, 6:42 PM)

As soon as the two entered Marui's warm home, the two were practically soaked. There was a note on the table that explained that the rest of the family went out for a short period of time and would come back soon, that wasn't really important to Marui so he threw it away.

Marui went to one of his closets in the hallway, brought out two towels, then started towards his room, Sengoku still behind him.

"Here you go." Marui said as he handed the lucky man a soft light green towel.

"Ah!" Marui jumped and quickly looked back at him in a worried fashion, "green is my favorite color! How did you know?" the orange haired teased, staring intently at Marui.

"Um…. Green looks good with orange?"

The two talked some more and after a while put in a video game. "Hey Sengoku, what time are you supposed to get home?" Marui asked in a sluggish kind of voice, focusing more on the game in front of him than anything else.

"What are you trying to get rid of me?" Sengoku teased.

"No, I was just asking…" Sengoku chuckled; he stared at the boy a little longer before deciding that it wouldn't hurt to scoot a little closer to him.

"So Marui, have you been looking for a boyfriend for a while now?" Sengoku asked, his green eyes trailing up the sweets-aholic's body; even though it was probably kind of hard since he was slouching over.

"Well sort of," Marui stated; completely oblivious to Sengoku's eyes that were mentally undressing him.

"Oh well then, maybe we should put that to an end, ne?" Sengoku said, his voice all of a sudden obtaining a husky tone, he moved a lot closer and began tugging at the boys shirt.

"WOAH, HEY WAIT A SEC-," His words were silenced with a grunt that came out of his own mouth as Sengoku forcefully pushed him back. Sengoku began trying to push their lips together while pinning Marui's hands behind his head.

"**Sit still!**" Marui gasped as Sengoku finally clashed their lips together, forcefully pushing his tongue against the tensai's lips, forcing them apart. Marui twisted and turned trying to get away only to fail. Marui felt his lungs screaming for air and his eyes began to water. Sengoku finally let go, letting Marui gasp and cough as he tried to take in air.

"Aren't you straight!" Sengoku smirked and pulled the boy up into his lap his hand still holding the boys wrists tightly.

"You're enough for me." He said throwing the boy down onto the floor once again. Marui cursed and closed his eyes waiting for more torture and was confused when he didn't feel anything. He opened one eye a slither which only gave him a blurry picture; so he opened them all the way to see Sengoku being held in the air by his neck by someone who was unrecognizable.

"Who…?" Marui cringed when Sengoku was thrown against the wall near Marui's computer, Marui stared and realized that poor Sengoku was unconscious, even though you shouldn't really put the word 'poor' in front of his name with what had just happened.

It was then when the man turned around, Marui shakily got up ready to see who his rescuer was when the only thing he got to see was a hand slapping him in the face.

"TARUNDORU!" Marui's eyes grew small at that familiar scream.

"S-Sana-, Fukubuchou?" He sat up from off the ground and looked up at him.

"What did I say!" He yelled, glaring at the pink haired boy with full force.

"W-Well it's um… It's Sengoku! How was I supposed to know he would try and rape me!" Sanada was about to yell some more until a groan caught their attention.

"I…. I wasn't… tryin' to rape…" was all that came out before the orange haired boy fell back into unconscious land. Sanada rolled his eyes and looked back to try to look at Marui once again only to see an empty space, the next thing he knew the pink haired maniac was in front of him.

"Why are you at my house in the first place Sana-, Fukubuchou?" Sanada blinked at the sudden question.

"Uh…," Sanada coughed, "that's not the situation here, the situation right now is that guy over there." He pointed at him before giving him an evil look.

"Were you following me?" Sanada looked down and glared at him, Sanada huffed and walked over to Sengoku, picked him up, and threw him over his shoulder to carry, "I expect you at practice tomorrow, and you will have 50 laps waiting for you." He walked to the door and was about to close it before Marui halted him once again.

"Fukubuchou," he glared at him, "um… thanks…" he could have sworn he saw the stoic man's face turn a really light shade of pink.

"… Go to bed, I don't want anything interfering with tennis, that's all." He then walked out.

- (The next morning, a random field of flowers, 7:21 AM)

Niou Masaharu laid a bunch of random equipment down onto the ground, he grinned at it.

"Well Niou Masaharu," he said to himself, "I'm about to do it, I'm about to reveal that alien and get my Best friend back." He chuckled and bent down to pick up a net, a package of freshly baked cupcakes, and a turtle. "Time to get to work!"

- (Rikkaidai High school, Hallways, 7:45 AM)

"Mornin' senpai, what did you call me here for?" Kirihara asked quietly rubbing his eyes, "I have to get to class after this so be quick." Niou blinked.

"Since when do you want to go to class brat, I'm doing you a favor." Kirihara frowned at him, if Yukimura knew he was skipping out on class to go talk to Niou, he would be angry at him, and he didn't want that, no one wanted that.

"Anyway, what do you want?" Akaya asked, ignoring Niou's statement, Niou smirked.

"I have a mission for you to do." Kirihara blinked and his hyper mode came out.

"OOH A MISSION REALLY! I WANT TO DO A MISSION! DO I GET SPY WEAR AND SPY ITEMS! OOH I HOPE SO!" Niou glared at him before quickly slapping his hand over his mouth.

"Shut up, do you want to tell the whole freakin' world?" Kirihara gave a sad face and slowly nodded in agreement to him shutting up, "Then be quiet," he smiled once again, "anyway, here's the plan." He pulled the boy closer to whisper in his ear and couldn't help but observe that he smelled like milk.

- (Rikkaidai High school, the side of the tennis clubroom, Lunchtime)

Marui whistled as he walked beside the clubroom heading to his lunch area, he couldn't help but be in a good mood, yeah he almost got raped by Sengoku Kiyosumi yesterday—the perv—but what made everything good was that Sanada, his Fukubuchou, came to his rescue! He now had new respect for his Fukubuchou.

He was about to break out in song before a box on the ground caught his eye, he squealed and his eyes began to shine.

"CUPCAKES!" He screamed and jumped over to the box, "a free turtle too! Can this day get any-," he was interrupted when something collided with his side sending him flying, he hit the ground and the next thing he knew he began fading into darkness.

- (Rikkaidai High school, Unknown place, unknown time, actually probably still lunch)

"Uh… what the…?" Marui looked around; he felt cold and… was he in a barn? Now in panic he began thrashing around like a tied up fish, actually that's when he realized, he was tied up! And Naked! Oh dear Kami-sama _WHY _was he _NAKED?_

"Ah, so you've finally woke up…" Marui gaped, yes, he was in a barn or at least a room that really resembled a barn, he was lying on mulch right now, and yes, it was not a pleasant feeling on his skin.

"What the, NIOU MASA-FREAKING-HARU!" He screamed, "Where are my clothes!" Niou gave an unbelieving snort.

"Are you serious? You're the worst kidnapee ever, if _I _woke up tied up in an unknown room, _I _surely wouldn't be asking where my clothes were!" Marui glared.

"I know you wouldn't, because you're so ugly they wouldn't even want to take off your clothes so you wouldn't even need to ask yourself that question!" Niou grew silent.

"That was mean…" Marui rolled his eyes, "well anyway, I'm going to knock the alien out of you." Marui gave a strange look.

"What, what the hell does that mean? Is that some knew phrase or somethin'?" Niou glared at the naked body before him—that sounded weird-.

"How typical, little alien playing innocence." Marui gave him a 'W-T-F' look, "KIRIHARA!" Niou screamed startling Marui.

"I'm coming Niou senpai-, OH MY GOSH!" Niou blinked before snorting.

"Oh I forgot to warn you, you better cover your eyes or something…"

"What's wrong, Akaya?" Niou's eyes grew five times larger, and he quickly ran over and began shaking the poor confused seaweed head.

"BAKAYA You brought people!" small water globs appeared at the side of Kirihara's eyes at that moment, all of this was too much for the poor boy to handle. So like any scared child would—although he's not necessarily a child anymore— he began to cry.

"Akaya!" Yukimura yelled from the hallway; which meant that this place wasn't a barn.

"Aw crap, I have to hide the body!"

"Hey, I'm not dead." Marui yelled.

"Shut it!" He ran over to the cake eater and picked him up, "where can I put you, ah this barrel should suffice!" he carried the boy bridal style to the barrel and dropped him in as if he were an object.

"OUCH!"

"What's going on in here?" Yukimura asked pulling Akaya closer to him once the boy ran into him crying.

"Nothing, nothing at all, the brattling is just being weird…" Yukimura gave him a look that said 'I'm not stupid; I know you're hiding something Niou Masaharu.'

"SANADA FUKUBUCHOU!" The barrel screamed, Yukimura's eyes widened and then the next thing he knew he was pushed out of the way and watched as a raging Sanada ran over to the barrel.

"E-Eh?" he asked in a confused tone. Akaya buried his face into his chest some more. The three watched as Sanada leaned into the barrel and pulled out a tied up naked Marui. The three has never seen Sanada as mad as he had looked at that moment.

Unfortunately at that moment, Yukimura wasn't really interested with the whole Marui situation, oh no, he was too busy going off into his own little chibi world trying to put everything that just happened together to make up some kind of strange conclusion.

'_Wait a second; Sanada pushed… __**me **__to the side, to save…. __**Marui**__? No… that can't be right, Sanada respects me; he would never choose anyone over me.' _His chibi-self began laughing in a crazy, messed up way, '_Yeah, Genichirou __**loves **__me… not Marui, he wouldn't protect Marui before me…"_

"-Chou, BUCHOU!" Kirihara yelled again as he shook Yukimura.

"Huh? Oh, yes Akaya?" Yukimura said giving him a warm smile.

"Look!" Kirihara whined pointing over to Sanada who was now in the process of strangling Niou.

"No… not before me…" Kirihara gave him a strange look, what did that mean? Was his captain saying that _he _wanted to get strangled before Niou? Or wait… was he talking about when Kirihara said look… why would he do that? Kirihara began tapping his head in deep thought.

- (Rikkaidai High School, Hallways, 2:57 PM)

"Oh Yukimura, I have something to tell you!" Marui said running up to Yukimura who was putting things away in his locker. Marui jumped a foot in the air when Yukimura slammed his locker hard enough to make the every locker on the wall shake.

"**What?"** Marui cringed, was that what a demonic voice sounded like? Geez, no wonder Kamio began crying.

"E-Eh… well, I just wanted to tell you want happened last ni-,"

"**I don't give a damn about what happened to you last night." **Marui felt fresh tears come to his eyes; oh great, now _he _was about to cry, but he actually had a reason unlike Kamio, what his buchou said to him really hurt his feelings.

"But why?" Yukimura decided to just punch his locker that time; not wanting to upset his buchou anymore, Marui scampered off in fright.

- (END)

**I do not support Anti-Sengoku A.K.A Hating Sengoku; I really, REALLY like him, I just wanted to use him since he's awesome, but could probably be a real pervert if he let his coolness and self-strength go.**


	4. Chapter 4

- (Rikkaidai High School, Tennis Practice, 3:45)

Marui sniffed and walked towards his locker in the clubroom, why was his buchou being so cold and mean to him? What had he done wrong? He opened his locker and brought out his jersey and sweat pants.

"I wonder if he's acting this way towards Akaya…" he sighed, maybe Yukimura was just having a bad day, but then again, he could have sworn he saw him in a super good mood this morning. He shook his head and plopped down on the bench.

"Are you okay, Marui?" Marui looked up and saw Yanagi looking at him from across the room.

"Ah, I'm fine," Yanagi gave him a look of disbelief. Marui mentally sneered; of course, Yanagi was too smart for that.

"It's buchou…" he said, believing that explained everything, which it did, sort of anyway. Okay it didn't.

"What's wrong with him?" Marui looked at him; he really didn't feel like explaining.

"Yes, what's wrong with me?" Marui jumped at least three feet in the air at the surprise entrance made by his buchou.

"Nothin's wrong, everything is absolutely fine!" Marui looked at Yukimura whose face turned cold once again.

"Well fine, go do eighty five laps since you're all so well." Marui gaped, what had he done!

- (Rikkaidai High school, Inside Yukimura's head, unknown time)

Yukimura watched as the scared volleyist ran out looking as if he were watching his back. Yukimura glared at the air. He hated being mean to his friend, but it was for Sanada's sake… well actually _his _own sake since he wanted to save Sanada for himself.

'_If I keep him busy practicing he will have no way to meet up with Sanada this afternoon, he'll stay away from him and Sanada will stay to pamper me. Everything is right this way, nothing needs to change.' _He sighed and looked down, Sanada was his, and he wouldn'tlet Marui steal him away.

"Yukimura?" Yukimura blinked and looked over at his other best friend.

"What is it, Renji?" he asked putting on a smile. Yanagi stayed quiet for a second before finally saying 'Never mind' and walked out of the room. Yukimura frowned. _'He better not judge me…' _

- (Rikkaidai High School, on the tracks or as some people might call it, the place to do laps, 4 something PM)

Marui gasped and fell onto the ground, he couldn't take it anymore! 85 laps were just too much!

"H-Help…!" He tried to cry out but only managed to have his voice fade out on him.

"Whoa, are you okay?" Marui looked up to see Jackal staring down at him.

"J-Jackal! Help, I'm not gonna make it!" Jackal sighed before picking the boy up and lifting him onto his back.

"Wow, you sure are sweating a lot…" Jackal observed feeling the sweat dripping onto his neck.

"It's not all sweat," he swallowed, "Some of it is my tears…." Jackal sighed.

"Come on, let's go get you some water, I'm sure buchou wouldn't mind." Marui wanted to scoff, yeah right, 'Buchou won't mind'; he guessed Jackal just hasn't seen the way their buchou has been acting, it actually scared him to think about, maybe he should just make Jackal put him down instead, who needs water when there's a crazy person out to get you, and by crazy person he meant Akutagawa Jirou, but that's not really the point right now.

"Actually, could you just set me down and bring the water to me?" Marui knew Jackal would have given him a strange look if he could actually see his face.

"Why?" he asked. Marui sighed.

"I-I don't want you to strain yourself?" Marui knew Jackal was rolling his eyes at the moment. "Just, I don't want to go right now, can you just put me down?" Jackal once again sighed before bending down to let the tensai roll off of him like a kitten.

"Okay then, wait here…" Marui smiled up at him.

"Thanks Jackal~" Jackal gave him a 'shoo fly' motion and walked off.

'_He better not forget about me…' _Marui sighed and fell back onto his back, he inhaled, taking in the fresh air and watched as the clouds rolled by above him. Now that he thought about it, he hasn't enjoyed the environment in a while, he just sort of saw it like there was nothing good about it, it was here everyday, there's no need to pay it any special attention. But now that he was looking around, looking up at the sky, he began to realize why just so many people were so in love with the Earth, and just why they called it 'the most beautiful thing'.

His peace was disturbed by a shadow that hovered over him; he smiled and sat up ready to fetch his drink when all of a sudden he immediately froze into a giant ice block, which was kind of funny since he was just dying of heat just a few seconds ago.

"Marui, what do you think you are doing?" Marui began to shake at the sight of his buchou.

"Eh well… I was um… I'm waiting for Jackal because he went to go get me some… water?" Yukimura closed his eyes just a little more so he could only see little slits of them, it made him even scarier than he already was.

"Well, I don't recall you ever asking me if you could take a break…" Marui realized his breathing became irregular and his eyes felt like they were a lot wider.

"Well…. Um…" it was then when Jackal finally decided to save the day, he began running up to the two, probably spilling all the water that was in the little cup.

"Buchou, I just went to go get Marui some water if you don't mind." It was a miracle, a complete twist from what was just going on, Yukimura's face immediately turned kind and he chuckled.

"Make sure you get a lot of water before running, Bunta." What, the first name phase too? This was just too good to be true! But why now? "Well, you two, be sure to get your exercises finished." He nodded before walking off.

"Here you go." Jackal held out the cup only to have it knocked out of his hands by Marui who immediately jumped on him.

"JACKAL!" He screamed causing Jackal to scream from shock.

"What!" He yelled in panic.

"How do you do it?" Marui asked completely confusing the half-Brazilian.

"What?" How did he get water? It's obviously beside the benches, Marui should know that.

"How do you do it, Buchou was totally being a jerk just a few seconds ago, and once you came over he all of a sudden got really nice." Jackal blinked, deciding he was officially freaked out for the day; he quietly and smoothly pulled Marui off of him, and then silently walked away.

- (Marui's Room, Diary pages, 6:35)

_Oh god, today has been so strange~ First, Yukimura has been totally mean to me all day long and for some reason his attitude totally changed once Jackal showed up, and then Jackal ignored me for the rest of practice after I asked him the most simple question in the world and then for some odd reason, Niou chased me down with water balloons. Maybe I should just transfer or take a small vacation for a while, too much stuff is happening for me to handle and_

_(Diary page, unfinished)_

- (Marui's room, 6:36)

Marui looked up and quickly stuck his diary underneath the bed; he could have sworn he heard something outside, he wasn't exactly sure how though, he was pretty sure that his hearing wasn't _that _good.

He slowly moved towards the window, still crouched, and looked out; he couldn't see anything but he definitely knew something or _someone _was out there, an intruder of some sort; it scared the crap out of him. But, he was the man of the house (other than his dad but he probably didn't know about the intruder) so it was his duty to get the intruder away, that's what Bunta believed anyway.

Silently moving towards his door, he began planning his strategy, what should he do? Just be straightforward and run out there and jump on the intruder while letting out a loud battle cry. No, that could get him killed, or at least make him look like a complete idiot.

Ah, maybe a sneak attack would work; he could go out the back door (get a kitchen knife along the way, just in case) and sneak up on the intruder; that was sure to work!

Marui grinned at his marvelous plan because surely it was the smartest thing in the world even though to other people just telling your parents and letting _them _deal with it would have been a better idea.

Marui quietly opened the door and began downstairs, he could push away the feeling that he really had to go to the bathroom though, Marui began to wonder if he was actually more nervous than he had thought.

- (Niou's house, some random time P.M.)

Niou groaned and continued tapping his pencil on his piece of paper, he hasn't been getting any work done lately since he was so concerned about Marui (not that he got it done even when he _wasn't_ concerned). He yawned and turned away from his desk, taking a little nap wouldn't be that bad of an idea.

He stood up and began towards his unmade bed, stepping over all the little trickster objects and devices that were scattered around the floor, he knew his mother would scold him once she saw his room, but until then it was to stay just like this.

"OW!" Niou screamed and quickly flew backwards on one foot, the other stuck in the air, "What the hell?" He hopped over to his bed and quickly sat on it then quickly held up his foot. His eyes traveled to where the pain was where he noticed his skin beginning to turn red and sticky liquid was starting to ooze out. He mentally cursed and turned his head to glare at what caused this.

On the floor was a large button pin thing, you know, those pins that you stick on your shirt most likely during election time in schools? Yeah that. Niou quickly got up and limped over to the button that was lying face down on the floor and picked it up, careful not to poke himself again.

The front of the button said '**This may not rhyme but we don't care; come join the tennis team and support us to maintain our victory!' **Niou smirked, he remembered when he and Marui had made all those buttons only to have Sanada throw them away later on since he believed that the only reason they made buttons was to use them as weapons. Silly Sanada, what kind of people did he think they were?

It was a second later when a frown found itself upon Niou's face; he sighed and slowly moved over to his bed once more. Where had Marui gone?

- (Marui's house, 6:52 P.M)

As soon as Marui opened the door a gust of chilly air engulfed him, Marui shivered in response. He stepped off the steps which put him on the grass of his backyard and began slowly moving the way his window was located.

'_I've got you now intruder!' _Marui smirked and clenched the kitchen knife a little tighter in his hand (yes he managed to get one). He slowly turned the corner just enough so he would be able to see what was past there, as soon as he did, his breath caught in his throat and he felt as if he was about to get sick; there was a gigantic shadowy person figure standing right there, lurking around.

'_**Burglar!**__' _His mind screamed in terror, he was about to just turn around and forget the whole thing; he would just run back inside, most likely screaming like a little girl, and tell his parents to call 911.

Marui quickly turned and began to flee back to the door when the next thing he knew he was lying face down on the ground (don't worry, the knife flew out of his hand and away from his face), and a metal bucket was spinning around on the pavement of the stone sidewalk that was beside him.

Marui began spluttering and started to crawl away, trying to just do anything to get away, he could here the quick footsteps from the stranger getting closer to him, he was about to burst into tears, he wished he never tried to be brave, he wished he had just began crying and ran into his parents room as soon as he heard the noises.

"M-Marui?" Oh no! Wait what? Marui blinked and slowly looked behind him to see a scary looking old man standing there.

'_G-Ghost of grandpa?' _Oh wait, never mind it was just Sanada. Sorry.

"SANADA-FUKUBUCHOU!" Sanada jumped at the sudden outburst.

"What are you doing here? Do you realize how terrified I was with all the noise you were making; I thought it was a burglar!" Sanada looked down in shame. Marui sighed; at least it wasn't a burglar or Sengoku.

"Well you see," Sanada began capturing Marui's attention, "when I got 'rid of Sengoku that day, he said that he would come back for revenge, so since then, I've been hiding out in your bushes." … okay, that wasn't weird at all.

"You were… hiding out in my bushes..?" Sanada nodded.

"Sorry for not telling you, I just didn't want to make you upset about Sengoku." Truth be told, Marui was more upset about the whole, 'Sanada-hiding-in-bushes, thing, more than the 'Sengoku-coming-back-for-round-two thing'.

"W-Well, would you at least come in or something, I mean, you could have spent the night at least, you really didn't have to hide in the bushes, I mean what are you a spy or something." Sanada looked away, Marui's eyes widened. "Y-You're not a spy are you?" Sanada quickly shook his head.

As soon as the two got inside Marui offered to get Sanada something hot to drink, Sanada obediently accepted, Marui stopped off to his parent's room to tell them Sanada was staying the night and finally made it upstairs to his own room.

"So Sanada," Marui said stirring his hot chocolate, "Why exactly are you here, 'guarding' me, shouldn't you be with Yukimura or something?" he stopped staring down into his drink and looked over at Marui.

"Why would I be protecting him, he didn't almost get raped." Marui glared, he didn't almost get _raped_; he could handle himself. "But either way just in case," He began reaching into the bag that was hanging off of his shoulder that we all just realized was there, "Just in case something did happen, I can look at this." Marui quickly set his drink on the floor and walked over to Sanada (he was sitting at Marui's desk, just so you know). Marui's eyes widened at what he saw.

On a small screen, Yukimura was sitting on his bed reading a book.

"YOU WEIRDO! You installed cameras in Yukimura's room!" Sanada gave a dark frown.

"What, it's my job to protect my team." Marui gave him a 'you-are-stoopid-look'. "And it's not just his room either," he started; he pressed a few buttons and the next thing Marui knew he was staring at Yukimura's whole house. "Yanagi got in touch with a satellite so we pinpointed where we wanted to see up here." Marui shook his head.

"You're crazy, Sanada." Sanada gave him a death glare.

"Not crazy, just overprotective, get it right." Marui was surprised at what he said.

"Anyway, does Yukimura know about this?" Marui asked, but right after he said it he began to daydream about how Yukimura would most likely tease Sanada when he knew he was watching with Bananas and chocolate syrup. Marui blinked, wait a second, what was he thinking?

"We're not exactly sure but it turns out that Yukimura has this same device except he has his cameras on Kirihara's house slash room." Sanada looked up, "well now that I think about it, I think he may have cameras in everyone's houses, I mean the tennis team of course." Marui's eye twitched, that information was a little disturbing.

"Sh-Shut up Fukubuchou!" Marui yelled as he quickly began to his bed, "You're talking too much, it's weird!" Sanada frowned again before turning his head towards the alarm clock next to Marui's bed. The glowing digits read 7: 30 P.M. Sanada glared.

"It's time to go to sleep, get into bed." Marui glared.

"You can't tell me when and when not to go to bed! It's my house." Sanada glared back, the only difference was that _his _glare overpowered the pink haired boys.

"No wonder you're always so tired if you go to bed later than this, go to sleep now, I'll sit here and look out your window to make sure there will be no disturbances." Marui was angry and confused.

'_What is he some kind of robot, doesn't he sleep, he'd be a good England door watcher, you know, those guys that stand in front of the doors to important places, well I'm not exactly sure if they're still there since I don't live in England but-, oh god, I'm starting to talk to myself!' _Marui sighed and obeyed his Fuku-buchou's orders, and it was only a couple of minutes before he fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

"Wake up Marui!" Marui jumped at least six feet in the air and quickly began looking around.

"Fu-Fukubuchou!" Oh yeah, he was here.

"It is 6:00 A.M. and clearly the time to get up, hurry and get ready for school, if you're not finished by at least 6:45 or earlier, you will do three laps around your house!" Marui stared in shock at the man, had he lost his mind? But seriously, he would make a great army instructor.

Sanada nodded at the pink haired boy before quickly turning to walk out of the room.

"… What just happened?" Marui bent his head down and shook it causing his hair to fly everywhere. He knew this was going to be a very strange morning and wasn't sure if he was actually ready to handle it.

-(Marui's bathroom, Jirou's heaven)

"No, no, no, you are supposed to brush your teeth up and down not side to side!" I glared at him.

"I don't really think it matters, Fukubuchou." It looked as if I just put his favorite teddy bear (yes, he has a favorite teddy bear that he snuggles with, like every night, he doesn't know that half of Rikkai knows about it though, his name is muffin.) through a shredder.

"Do you want to have crooked teeth!" Sanada asked, glaring at him angry from the 'it doesn't matter' comment.

"I don't think you can get crooked teeth from," Marui noticed the dark aura coming from the other, "Fine, fine, here." He began moving his toothbrush up at down, leaning towards him showing him that he was doing it right. "'Appy 'ow?" Marui asked; his mouth full of toothpaste.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." That earned a glare from the shorter boy.

-(An unknown cozy café, about… 6 or 7: 28?)

Niou yawned as he took in the warmth of his hot chocolate by inhaling the sweet aroma. He was in a small warm café at the moment, it was actually quite normal, the only thing different about it today was the empty seat that sat across the table from him.

That's right; usually Marui Bunta would be sitting right there in front of him, most likely teasing him over something he's done. Unfortunately, lately the tricksters best friend has been acting very strange, well that's what Niou has been thinking anyway.

'But lately, I've began to think deeper about it,' Niou thought to himself, taking a sip of his hot chocolate, quivering as the sweet warm liquid flowed down his throat, 'He doesn't seem as strange anymore, just… depressed.' Niou sighed and looked down, not noticing the figure that was standing over him.

"U-Um, hello, Niou-kun." Niou jumped and quickly looked up to see a young girl holding a tray.

"Oh; hey there." He grinned at her, mentally laughing as she blushed, poor girl; she wasn't going to get any of this.

"Would you like anymore?" She asked, her brown eyes sparkling a little.

"Nah, I'm fine, I've got to get to school anyway." He said finishing off the last of his beverage before handing the empty blue mug to her. She quickly took it and placed it on the tray.

"Oh, okay then…" Niou got up and quickly took out some money placing it on the table, not forgetting the girl's tip, even though he never thought of going out with her, she was a nice girl and deserved the money.

"Oh Um, Niou-kun," She started; she looked down, a blush spreading over her cheeks. Niou cocked an eyebrow.

"What's wrong?"

"W-Well, I was just wondering… are you… alright?" Niou blinked in confusion, of course he was, what did she mean by that?

"Well, I feel fine." Niou said, moving his hands up and down his body as if it signaled that he was perfectly normal.

"Well I mean… you seemed kind of lost, like you were… depressed or something." _Bing_, that got him. Depressed; Him really?

Niou frowned.

"I'm fine; I'm not depressed at all." She frowned.

"Oh… well I'm sorry for bothering you." She quickly gathered the money off the table and placed it into the tray.

"Well I have to go now." Niou started, beginning to make his way towards the door.

"U-Uh, please come again!" She yelled towards him. He threw up a hand signaling that he had heard her and would most likely come once again.

'Am I really… depressed...?' he thought, feeling even more confused than before 'and if I am… over what, exactly?' he looked up in wonder; this was going to be a long day.

- (Some alley way, 7:somethin' I lost track a long time ago)

'He's still following me' Marui slowly looked back to see a blur quickly move into the bushes causing it to shake. 'Yep, definitely still following me…'

"Fukubuchou, you can just walk beside me you know." Marui called out, glaring back at him. He heard a thump come from behind him signaling that the Fukubuchou had most likely just tripped over a root of some sort.

"Tarundoru!" he screamed, Marui wanted to laugh so badly, but he held it in, not feeling like getting slapped so early in the morning.

The two continued walking, mostly taking in the environment since neither really had anything to talk about. Well, Marui did, but it wasn't anything to talk to Sanada about, the 'old man' would probably scold him about it anyway.

"Huah, Yukimura-san!" Marui shook, surprised at the sudden outburst from the one next to him, it was then when he realized his captain standing a little ways in front of him, unfortunately as far as he could tell, he was certainly _not _happy about something.

Sanada quickly ran over to him like an obedient dog, completely forgetting about the fuchsia-colored headed boy.

Marui quickly ran over to his captain, thinking that, hey maybe his captain isn't angry at him anymore and that face of terror was pointed only at Sanada-fukubuchou and not him. Oh was he wrong.

"Sanada," Yukimura started, looking the boy up and down, "Where were you last night? I called your house."

"I was with Marui, Yukimura." Marui saw Yukimura's left eye twitch, Marui gulped.

"I-Is that so, and why exactly?" Yukimura glared over at Marui.

"Because I was protecting him." Sanada stated simply. It seems that Yukimura had lost his cool at that moment, he quickly grabbed Sanada's shirt and pulled him down to his eye level. Marui jumped at the sudden action and was arguing to himself of whether he should run away or not.

"PROTECTING HIM!" Sanada blinked, just as confused as Marui was. "WHAT THE HELL DOES HE NEED PROTECTING FOR!"

"Bu-Buchou!" Yukimura quickly looked over at the 'tensai' who was now holding his lips as if he didn't mean to let anything slip out.

"This is your entire fault!" Yukimura spat pushing Sanada away causing him to trip and fall onto the ground. Yukimura gasped before quickly running to his side.

"Yukimura, what is wrong with you?" Sanada asked. Yukimura paused in thin air letting a small frown take over. He sighed and looked down now finding the ground really interesting.

"I just…" Marui frowned looking down at the two. He wanted to go and get in front of his buchou, give him a bear hug and make him tell him why he seemed so upset, but it was probably because he was just that kind of guy.

"Yukimura." Sanada said giving the boy a serious look, "just tell me, you seem stressed, I don't want you upset anymore." Marui could tell Yukimura's lip was starting to quiver a little but it seemed that he kept any sobs in.

"It's just… you're not giving me any attention or spending any time with me." He spoke, his voice quavering a little. Sanada's frown lowered, not liking Yukimura so upset, especially when it's mostly because of him.

"Yukimura… I-I'm sorry, I didn't realize I wasn't spending much time with you." Marui all of a sudden felt that he shouldn't be there.

"No, no it's just me, I know it is," he sniffed, "I'm just overreacting like usual, I'm sorry." Marui let out a quiet gasp once he noticed a drop liquid fall from his face. He desperately wanted to say something at the moment like 'buchou don't cry, it will be okay!' but he wisely kept his mouth shut anyway.

"Don't cry Yukimura," probably without realizing the usually stoic man pulled the shorter one into his torso. Yukimura's body became a little stiff from the unfamiliar feeling before he relaxed. "Uh… um… we could… maybe, go out to eat after practice? Maybe… without the team?" Yukimura's eyes widened and he quickly looked up at him.

"Really?" Sanada gave an awkward nod to him. Yukimura then began to smile happily. Marui could see a faint grin appear on Sanada's face as well, even though it was kind of weird.

Marui smiled as well, he was happy for the two, and maybe Yukimura would stop being so scary towards him, I mean, he was pretty sure that was the reason for at the glares and deep depressing voices that he used.

Sanada looked down and his eyes widened.

"We're late for school Tarundoru!" He gently pushed Yukimura off of him before getting up and helping the blue haired boy up afterwards. Yukimura gave him a small smile.

"Its fine, I'll just tell the teachers to let it slip, and they'll listen to me." Marui cheered at that.

"Alright buchou! Thanks for that!" The two glared at him causing the boy to freeze in thin air at the middle of his jump.

"Who said I was going to tell your teachers." Marui whimpered, feeling nervous.

"B-But Buchou! I-I, we have practice today! You don't want me to miss it, I mean, my performance will go down and what not and we may lose to a rival team!" Yukimura sighed at that statement, it was too painfully true.

"Fine, I guess I'll let you off the hook this time." Marui cheered once more. "But you're going to have to do like… how many laps?" Marui froze once more, coming down from the air he began to sob.

"What did _I_ do to deserve this!" He asked slumping forward and starting to school.

"Keep up that attitude and you'll be going to detention _and _doing laps." Yukimura said, Marui immediately straightened up and walked normally to school causing Yukimura to laugh at the sudden change now that he was feeling a lot better.

- (Somewhere behind Rikkai middle school, a patch of trees, 8:35 I'm guessing.)

Niou laid back on one of his favorite trees, he yawned, skipping class was hard work, and at least it let him relax for a little while longer before he had to go to his next class. The spiky haired boy jumped up in alert.

"Calm down Niou-kun, it's just me." Niou slid back down into his position before he was surprised by the sudden intrusion, he watched as Yagyuu sat across from him. "The teacher sent me to come get you." He said.

"Traitor." Niou said letting out a yawn. A silence formed between the two; unfortunately Yagyuu knew the other would break it soon. "Hey Yagyuu." And was he right.

"Yes, Niou-kun?" Niou stretched out a little like a lazy cat.

"Do I seem, depressed?" he asked scratching his now itching chin. Yagyuu gave him a strange look.

"Well you have seemed kind of quiet lately, but not necessarily depressed." Yagyuu said. Niou huffed, then what was that chick at the café talking about? Niou grinned, he knew it, he _knew _he wasn't depressed; only girls like Marui could get depressed.

Niou jumped up all of a sudden full of energy, Yagyuu gave a small smile.

"Well you seemed to have just got in a better mood, does that mean you are going to let me take you back to class without making me have to chase you around the school again?" Niou smirked.

"Oh yeah, okay, I'll just go right back to the classroom now, I won't run off or anything." Niou said moving slowly towards the entrance of the woods. Yagyuu knew he was going to run, but he might as well let the trickster have his fun, after all he has to spend a whole day in classes, why not?

As that moment Niou broke out into a run, his comical laughter filling the air.

* * *

**I know I've pretty much went off track with this story but I promise the actual plot will come in once again soon, most likely the next chapter. *sighs in content and cracks knuckles* I'll possibly start working on the next chapter today since I don't really have anything better to do! Yay~! **

**Oh yeah, and sorry for any crappy grammar this may have, it's a hot and lazy day today, I went over it but i'm also kind of tired since I didn't get that much sleep last night TT_TT please excuse any!**


	6. Chapter 6

Marui cheered as he finally got out of the prison people call 'school'. He was in such a better mood today now that the whole 'angry Yukimura' thing was settled, well at least he hoped it was. Having an angry Yukimura on your tail was not a good experience to have.

The magenta head frolicked over to his doubles partner who was giving him a strange look, most likely settling on whether to just stay and see what the boy wanted or run away.

"JACKIE~!" He yelled happily jumping onto the half-Brazilian boy who was just about to go with the second option, unfortunately stopping him.

"What is it, Marui?" He asked, trying to pry the energetic one off of him.

"Guess what, go on guess!" Jackal sighed knowing he was going to be able to escape.

"You got a new cake that you're going to eat when you get home?" Marui frowned and looked down.

"No..." Jackal gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "But guess again!" Jackal groaned, he was already a little hot even though he was used to the heat, and he didn't like to be bothered while he was. It was then when he started to wonder why exactly the other wasn't complaining about it, usually he was the first to say something about the weather.

"Er, I don't know Marui, just tell me." Marui pouted before playfully hitting his friends' shoulder.

"You're no fun Jackie, I'm now deciding whether or not I should just leave and tell someone else." Jackal looked down at him, shrugged, before turning to walk away. "NO DON'T LEAVE ME!" Jackal glared at him. "Yukimura isn't angry at me anymore!" Marui looked like a dog with a new toy, he stared up at him, his eyes shining and his mouth open a little.

"Yukimura was mad at you?" Marui frowned and just decided to push him away.

"You know what, never mind Jackal, have a good day." The two stared at each other before both turning their backs on the other and shaking their heads in unison.

"Ah! There you are Marui!" Marui opened his eyes and looked over to see Niou walking over to him grinning.

"Eew, hi Niou." Marui said stepping away from him a little.

"Eew? What's that for, I'm here ta' help you." He said, smirking a little.

"Help me, with what?" Marui asked hoping it wasn't like last time where he basically kid-napped him and stole his clothes. That thought made him remember that he still had to get back at him.

"Well, I know that you're all depressed and stuff," Marui gave him a strange look, "But don't worry I'm here to help, because after thinking a little bit about it in my classes even though I was supposed to be paying attention, I decided that the reason you were depressed was probably because you didn't have a boyfriend, because I remembered that you were boyfriend hunting but every guy you met were either butt-ugly or just turned you down and then you were all 'Oh~ I'm sooo fat and ugly and no one will ever love me!'-,"

"Okay, is there an actual point to this?" Marui asked feeling a little irritation forming inside of him.

"Yes there is, well I have decided, being the awesome friend that I am, I have decided to give you my body, to use as a boyfriend!" Marui stared. And stared. And stared some more. Niou was about to grin once he saw the little smile forming onto his best friends' face but the tricksters' smile immediately faltered after what happened next.

Marui closed his eyes and let out a little huffing noise, Niou was immediately about to go to his friends 'rescue' and ask him what was wrong before the pink haired boy let out a scream of laughter and fell onto the ground, slowly rolling around on the clay of the tennis courts. Niou frowned and glared at him in complete embarrassment (even though he wouldn't admit he was embarrassed).

"What the hell are you laughing at! I just offered you my body-," That sentence only seemed to have made the volleyist laugh even harder until tears were coming down his face.

"Are... Are you an idiot?" He choked out trying to breathe. Niou felt his face flush a little.

"What on earth is going on here?" Yanagi asked coming out of nowhere. Hearing random laughing coming from the 'tensai' of Rikkai, made him a little worried.

"This guy is being stupid!" Niou spat still glaring at the one who was on the ground shaking.

"Niou why is your face red?" Yanagi asked, Niou took a double take at the smarty-pants before completely looking away from him to try and hide himself.

"Oh god! I think my stomach just blew up inside!" Marui cried out now panting.

"What happened?" Yanagi asked, other people started to crowd around as well which began making the three regulars a little uncomfortable.

"What the hell are you all looking at, go back to your laps!" Niou screamed. Afraid of upsetting the famous trickster of the school and maybe even Japan, all the spectators scurried away.

Marui finally managed to calm down and at least sit up, he wiped a tear away.

"Oh god, that was _way _too good!" Marui said, sighing afterwards and beginning to rub his stomach.

"What exactly was so funny to you Marui?" Yanagi asked looking down at him.

"That idiot up there said the most stupidest thing ever!" He cried out pointing to the trickster who looked like he was becoming more than a little pissed off.

"Watch your grammar Marui, and what exactly did he do?"

"Nothing." The two who were just having a conversation stopped and looked over at the 'subject' who just spoke. "Never mind." He said before walking away, his head still down.

As soon as Marui saw his friend walk away like that he immediately felt a pang of guilt run through him. He wasn't sure why though, the trickster hardly ever got upset over things, he was probably just doing that for attention or because he was bored. But he still felt a small frown forming. Yanagi, who of course noticed the tensai's sudden mood change, looked over at the one who was now walking away.

"You know, Marui, Seiichi won't like it if he sees you just sitting there not doing anything." Yanagi said looking back at the frowning boy. At the mention of his buchou's name he immediately jumped up and began looking for someone to have a practice match with.

Yanagi frowned as he stared at him, so many changes were happening with his team members it was hard to keep up with it all, even Akaya was acting strange lately. The data man looked back at said boy who was sitting on the sidelines poking at ants with a stick. The boy would usually be threatening people into playing matches by now. Even when he beat one of the strongest of the freshman players yesterday he didn't shine with happiness like usual.

"Yanagi." Yanagi looked over to who called him, seeing his buchou he gave a small, but mostly fake, smile.

"Seiichi." He responded, giving a short nod.

"Want to play a match with me?" He asked, Yanagi walked over to the nearest bench and placed his book down before picking up a racket.

"Sure, I'll meet you on the court, I have to change." Yukimura nodded before heading over to the court they would be playing on. Yanagi shook his head and headed into the clubroom.

- (Rikkai Middle School, End of practice, about 4 o'clock? (1st) )

Grabbing his school bag, Yukimura looked back with a confident smile on his face at the vice captain who was now tying his shoe.

"I'll meet you outside, okay, Sanada?" Said man nodded and looked back up at his Buchou.

"Okay." Yukimura turned and exited the building, his aura of greatness still not leaving the room even though blue head has.

Sanada looked back down at his shoe trying to figure out just what kind of dilemma with the knots of his shoe string he has to deal with now. Curse them, they're always slowing him down, maybe he should just begin wearing some of those slip-on shoes.

"Huuwah! Today's practice was so easy, I don't know what was up with Yukimura-buchou today but for some reason he's been really happy." Sanada perked his head up a little at what the boy was talking about.

"I know right? Hopefully whatever is keeping him happy stays keeping him happy, I mean, I actually didn't even break a sweat today!" Sanada felt his left eyebrow twitch. Didn't break a sweat? Unacceptable!

"Well you know what I heard?" Exactly how many people were still in the clubroom? Sanada thought to himself. "I heard that him and Fukubuchou was going out to eat after practice, do you think that's what's making him become so easy on everyone?" Sanada mentally gasped.

"Well if that's so, then let's hope they have dates all the time!" The three random club members laughed out loud. Sanada heard the door open and close signaling that they had left, Sanada had also heard a quick opening and shutting of the door right after it, but that wasn't important.

Sanada stood up, a deep, dark frown on his face. If dates were really going to make his team slack off and not do good to get ready for matches, then him and Yukimura could definitely not go out again together after practice! That was certainly a definite no-no! With this patched into Sanada's mind and finally ignoring the knot, the stoic man threw his bag over his shoulder and started to the door.

-(Rikkai Middle School, End of Practice, about 4 o'clock? (2nd) )

"Well you know what I heard? I heard that him and Fukubuchou was going out to eat after practice, do you think that's what's making him become so easy on everyone?" A small gasp emerged from a certain sea weed head who had just stashed a book away that he decided he didn't need tonight in his locker.

"Well if that's so, let's hope they have dates all the time!" Kirihara felt his hand ball up into a tight fist, he slowly closed the door and looked down. Both Buchou and Fukubuchou were going out to eat after practice? Oh how bad poor Kirihara wanted to punch his locker at the moment, how badly he wanted to just run out of the clubroom and let out a giant scream. It wasn't fair!

The curly head heard the door to the clubroom open and close, and before he actually knew what was happening, he all of a sudden found himself running towards the door as well, quickly pushing it open then pulling it closed. He was just about to run home before a voice stopped him.

"Ah, you're going home Akaya? See you tomorrow." Akaya turned his head to see his buchou, he was smiling and it looked as if little silver sparkles were fluttering around him.

"Yeah, I guess…" he mumbled looking down.

"Hm? What's wrong, Akaya?" Kirihara shook his head before beginning his way home.

"Nothing Buchou…" Kirihara put his head down, wishing that he was home already, the sound of the club door opening once more wasn't what caught his attention next, but it was what came after it.

"Ah, there you are Sanada ready to go?" Kirihara looked back and frowned at the two.

"Yes, let's go, I want to talk about something when we get there as well."

"Okay then, come on, I'll take you to one of my favorite places." Kirihara wiggled his nose in disgust.

'Have a good time…' he thought, walking away once more.

-(Rikkai Middle School, End of Practice, about 4 o'clock (3rd/last) )

Marui stopped in his tracks once he saw a familiar figure with silver spiky hair walking towards a small hill that lead into a small patch of woods behind the school. The sweets lover began to run towards the entrance, hoping to catch up to his familiar friend before he lost him in the woods… again.

"Niou!" He cried out almost tripping a couple of times. Niou looked back to see his, as he says, 'fat friend' running towards him.

"What?" he asked waiting for what the other had to say.

"C…Can I come with you?" Marui asked, his breathing becoming heavier. Running unnecessarily was awful!

"Why do you want to come?" he asked. Deciding on whether or not he should just leave him, he wouldn't be able to catch up anyway.

"It can be just like old times!" He said, Niou felt his heart thump a little heavier than all the rest of the normal beats, "right?" Niou saw the younger one give a smile that was almost only meant for Akaya. One that was really wide and white with innocents. Niou huffed.

"Fine, just don't slow me down." Marui gave another large smile that wasn't exactly like the last one and began running up the small steep hill, only managing to actually get up there with Niou's help.

"You're still so slow and ugh, flabby!" Marui was about to punch his daylights out but shortly realized that he was the reason he hasn't fell back onto his butt yet.

"Yeah, yeah whatever." The two finally made it up the hill and began their way to… wherever. A small snort got the 'flabby boy's' attention.

"I remember when you fell in that ditch and started to cry because you couldn't get out." Niou laughed. Marui frowned at the memory.

"Yeah and you laughed at me just as much then as you are now, oh yeah you're a good friend…" Marui said sarcastically which only caused Niou to laugh even harder.

"Hey I got you out, that's all that matters right?" Marui wanted to spit on him, but kept it in, not because it was wrong but he knew that if he did he would probably get a spider in his lunchbox tomorrow… again.

The two continued on in silence, Marui wasn't sure where they were actually going but it didn't really matter to him at the moment, even though the two wouldn't openly admit it, they really enjoyed each others company, it didn't really matter if they were just walking to know where, they would have a good time doing it even if they didn't talk the whole way.

"Hey, do you remember that place we always went to during lunch break and all that?" Niou asked. Marui looked over at his friend.

"You mean," Marui looked around, as if someone was _actually _around to hear him. "Our secret hide out?" he asked, he felt a little bit of an electric charge of excitement run through him by just saying the name. Niou nodded, a small grin forming onto him.

"Yeah, good times huh?" Marui immediately nodded.

"Oh yeah! That's the place where I found out that you had a terrible fear of s-,"

"Shut up!" Marui jumped and broke into laughter.

"Oh yeah like there's anyone around here to hear this." Niou frowned.

"Still, geez you're so loud, it's like you want the whole world to hear." Marui stuck his tongue out only to get interrupted by falling flat on his face. Let's just say the whole 'Marui literally busting a gut' thing happened once again, only this time with Niou.

Marui wiped a tear away and looked over to Niou who was rolling around in the dirt, He pouted.

"Oh shut up!" Marui spat, this time his face was the one getting red.

"Y-You were just walking then, BOOM haha!" Niou screamed beginning to rub his aching stomach.

"Whatever… look!" He screamed pointing through a couple of branches. "It's our hide out!" He yelled, Niou quickly sat up and looked to where the other was pointing. The two stood up completely before walking through the branches.

There was a wide open space, the grass was a healthy green color with small gold weeds sticking up, a little of the suns golden rays were dipping in. A couple of colorful flowers were swaying with the winds' breeze. A perfect picture for a Disney movie, it seemed.

The two immediately ran into the spot plopping down onto the ground. Marui actually laying back and looking up at the sky.

"Ah, it's been forever since we've been here, hasn't it?" Niou nodded and looked up as well.

The two watched as the shaded leaves of the trees slowly swayed, the sound of the leaves brushing together flowing through their ears. The two automatically yawned, this was the perfect place to take a nice nap. That's basically what the two did anyway every time they came here.

"I'm already ready for a nap." Niou said, chuckling a little afterwards.

"Me too, even though I wasn't that tired today, it felt like we weren't pushed as hard today as usual." Niou nodded in agreement.

"I know, I felt that way too, I wonder if Mura's alright."

"Ah he's fine…" Marui said, rubbing his eyes, "him and Sanada are going on some kind of date today or somethin'" Niou sat up his eyes scanning over the one in front of him.

"Really?"

"Realleh~" Niou looked up and gave a mischievous grin, one that was just meant for trouble.

"Do you think we can put some kind of… ticket sale out or somethin'?" Marui opened one eye. "Yeah like… no wait… we can make video's of buchou's and Fukubuchou's date and sell them!" Marui chuckled, he could already hear the little evil mini Niou inside of his friend cackling evilly.

"Well, good luck with that." Marui said, closing his eyes once more.

"No.. No! You have to help me!" Niou said scooting over to his friend to sit next to him. "We'll make it a TV show, it will be called… "_A look into the love life of a Rikkaidai Buchou"_ Niou began hopping up and down. "We'll sell millions!" Marui sat up and stared at him.

"You know, that just might work!" the two cheered at their rising idea before beginning to make plans.

- (A patch of trees, Behind Rikkaidai, 6:45)

After the two had finally come up with the perfect idea, ran and jumped the gate of the school since they realized how late it had got and called Marui's family to tell them he wouldn't be coming home tonight, the two finally made it to Niou's house.

The two walked in and Niou immediately went to his kitchen to get some food and Marui immediately went up to Niou's room.

Marui yawned and jumped onto the messy bed, he looked around, other than his bed it was surprisingly clean in there.

"Niou must've cleaned, I'm surprised…" he screeched when he felt something hit his stomach. Looking down he realized it was a small bag of cookies. "Eee! Happy face!" Marui screamed immediately digging into the bag.

Niou rolled his eyes. Before sitting down onto the bed as well.

"Oh yeah, you have some of my clothes here right?" Marui asked as he tried to save a cooking from falling off the bed.

"Yeah, in the back of my closet." Marui chuckled.

"What are you holding my clothes hostage or something?" Niou grinned.

"Oh yeah~." The two laughed a little. A sudden silence overcame the two after that little humorous moment. Niou looked over at his friend.

"You know, a few days ago I was just believing that, your brain was being took over by aliens." Marui gave a strange look.

"I mean seriously dude what was with that?" Marui said a strange look still on his face.

"But now that I think about it, that was a kind of stupid thought."

"Oh Really?" The two gave each other a look that said 'eerah! Angry face' look. "Oh yeah, that reminds me!" Marui said quickly getting up off the bed. "Can I get on your computer very quick?" Niou nodded and laid back onto his bed where Marui just was.

Marui sat down into the chair and after rolling around in it first turned on the computer only to realize that the computer was already on, because it seems that Niou doesn't care about the bills and left it on all day, and had to turn it on again.

After hearing an excited gasp come from the other Niou quickly got up off his bed and went over curious as to what caused Marui to do so.

"Look, Look! Someone wants to go on a date with me~!" Marui began jumping up and down in his seat. Niou frowned.

"Really, you're still looking for someone even though half the people already dumped you?" Niou mentally slapped himself and wished he hadn't even said anything.

Marui looked up at him, he was not pleased at all, there was a look of anger mixed with sadness.

"Thanks for that, jerk…" the boy got up before starting towards the door, "I'm leaving." Niou frowned as well.

"Sorry but it's true!" Oh wow, nice Niou. Marui didn't seem too forgiving, he quickly spun around giving a sharp glare to the other.

"Why don't you shut up?" Niou blinked, Marui opened his mouth as if he was about to say something else but closed it again. "You know, never mind, I'm going to go home." Niou's frowned deepened.

"Wait a second." He said standing up and grabbing at the other's arm. "Sorry I said that, it just slipped out."

"So you mean to tell me that's what you were thinking?" Marui asked not amused.

"Well hey, at least I'm being honest with you." What a wrong thing to say.

Niou stepped back holding his cheek, he knew that was going to be swollen in the morning.

"You're such an asshole sometimes…" Niou watched him turn and leave the room without another word. Boy did Niou screw up this time or what?

-(,)

**During when I was writing this chapter my dog scared the crap out of me because all of a sudden he just randomly jumped up from across the room and ran over to where I was and hid under my desk, I was all "WHAAA!" and then when I looked back I noticed a large wasp flying around. Oh my god It was so lucky it got away, if it was sitting on something I would have killed it dead! (I have a huge dictionary sitting next to me lol) So I spent about 10 minutes cuddling and comforting my dog. Freaking wasp… X(**

**Also I wanted to make this a little 'pang in the heart feeling' but I've been having a lot of interruptions so it's probably not as emotional as I wanted it to be X( darn it!**


	7. Chapter 7

Marui was entirely happy once he had finally got to his house but was totally unprepared of what was waiting for him up in his room.

"Yes that's right lady, you have every right to that man's belongings…"

"B-Buchou?" Yes, Yukimura, his tennis buchou, was sitting on his bed watching some kind of divorce court.

"Ah, there you are Marui, I have been waiting for you for a long time, where on earth have you been?" Marui gulped, what exactly was going on, did he walk into the wrong house? But then Yukimura had said he had been waiting for him, wait, why has he been waiting for him?

"Well… I'm here." Marui said trying to put a fake smile on his face only to fail. "But, um, I know you're my buchou and all but… what are you doing in my house?" Yukimura shot him a sad look.

"You don't want me in your house?" Marui frowned.

"No no! That's not it, I just…"

"Good; boy I've had a rough day." The Rikkai buchou leaned back onto Marui's bed yawning, "You know what Sanada-sit down Bunta you're making me nervous- said to me today?" Marui obeyed his captains orders and sat down in his chair in front of his computer, turning to face his captain.

"What did he say, buchou?" Yukimura sniffed and scratched at his cheek.

"Well this is what happened, me and Sanada got to that place that we were going to eat at, and all of a sudden after getting our food he looked at me and said," Yukimura sat up and faced his teammate, " 'Yukimura'" Yukimura started making his voice a little deeper as if it fit Sanada, " ' I don't think we should go out like this anymore, people are suspecting that just because we're going out to eat, they think that they can slack off!'" Yukimura was frowning.

"Really? I mean come on, what kind of captain would I be if I let my team slack off?" Marui was about to agree with Sanada, telling Yukimura that, yes it kind of felt like that, but held his tongue.

"Well, maybe um… start being hard on everyone so no one would think that?" Yukimura smiled.

"Wonderful idea Bunta, how about… starting practice off with-,"

"Err well I mean," Marui had guts to interrupt his buchou, "only be really hard on the days you and Fukubuchou go out with each other and not on the days you don't…. Maybe?" Yukimura looked up as if in thought.

"You know, that's a good idea, only if Sanada will actually go out with me again, but I'm sure he will." Marui smiled at his buchou while nodding.

"Yeah I'm sure he will too!" Marui stood up, "Well Yukimura, I hate to say this but… um.. Shouldn't you be getting home?" Yukimura shot a him another look.

"Well you certainly don't expect me to just go home at this hour, I suggest that we should spend the night together!" Marui blinked, did he really just say what it sounded like he said?

"Wha-wha, eh?" Marui stared at his buchou as if he just gained a new head.

"Yeah, hey maybe it will even be fun, now, can I borrow your clothes?" Yukimura stood up and started towards Marui looking the boy up and down. Marui just stood there, frozen on the spot. "We might be the same size… can I test out a shirt?" Without thinking, Marui slowly made his way towards his dresser, he opened it up and began taking out the contents.

"Here you go, buchou." he said, holding his clothes out looking a little stiff, he almost resembled a robot that still needed work and oil, lots of oil.

"Ah, thank you, I'll go to the bathroom to change." He made his way towards the door as if he owned the place and looked back at his teammate before proceeding, "you know Marui…" Yukimura stopped talking for a sec to take the moment to look around the boy's room. "I'm glad that your room is clean, I mean, some people's rooms are just so ridiculous that I can hardly sleep, good boy." Yukimura then turned and began his route to the bathroom once more.

As soon as Marui heard the door to the bathroom close, he would have actually been wondering how his buchou knew where his bathroom was but figured it was just because he was buchou and buchou knew all, he fell onto his bed. This would be his second sleep over in a row, and both times with really strange people.

"I want chocolate…" he heard himself say, to be honest he didn't even want chocolate, he just wanted something to eat to keep him busy.

He buried his head into his pillow, feeling the smooth, soft silk on his skin. He moaned, the silk felt so good. Feeling himself become hypnotized by his bed, he quickly got off and pulled the covers up before quickly crawling inside. He felt his intestines have a spaz attack with how good the pillow and blankets felt on his skin.

"OOH~" He moaned loudly, he began panting as he ran his hands along his soft clean bed sheets and began burying his body into his vanilla covered blanket, he bucked his body and yelped happily as he began rolling making sure not to fall off. He quickly jumped up from the bed and flew down onto it once more, thrashing his head around like a wet dog that was trying to get dry and-,

"What on Earth are you doing?" Marui jumped in shock, oh yeah, that guy was here.

"… getting ready for bed?" Yukimura had the strangest look in his eye, he slowly moved towards the rug on the floor, thinking about whether he should just sleep there tonight.

"Well.. You certainly have a strange way of doing so…" Yukimura frowned, "Not to mention you're still in your school uniform, no wonder your clothes are always wrinkly!" Yukimura got up and walked over to the boys dresser and began looking through there.

"HEY, who said you can just look through my dresser!" Marui stood up on his knees, glaring at his buchou.

"I'm just looking, calm down, honestly." Yukimura pulled out a pair of pink pajama pants with rams printed on them. He giggled. "You should totally where this~" Marui's face became an even deeper red than Kamio Akira's hair.

"You- I- That was-," Yukimura simply waved him off and pulled out something else, it was a baby blue shirt that had little deserts with little faces on it.

"Aw~ Now I know this is definitely yours~" Marui's face was so red now, the color scientists had to make up a new name for it, they called it… Marumas, A mix between how red Marui's face was and Christmas red.

"I- I have never seen either of those before in my life!" He cried, about to cover himself with his blanket of ecstasy. Yukimura grinned.

"You are going to wear this and you will like it!" He said, Marui noticed how his buchou was beginning to bounce up and down due to excitement. Marui grumbled a 'fine' before snatching the clothes out of the others hands and starting to the bathroom.

- (Somewhere in Japan, inside a random place behind some other random place, 8:16 P.M)

"HUAGH!" _thump. _Pants sounded across the semi-empty stone room. Two green vivid eyes flashed open which were holding two different emotions, Determination and Confusion.

'How could they?' "HUAGH!" _thump._ Kirihara panted, bending down closing his eyes as he felt the sweat of effort slowly run down his skin, dripping onto the floor. He once again pulled out another tennis ball preparing to send another across the room. As the tennis ball flew hitting the wall once it got over to the other side, thoughts flashed quickly through the seaweed-head's mind.

_You know what I heard? I heard that him and Fukubuchou were going out to eat after practice._

He compressed his teeth together as the familiar thought played around in his mind again.

'How could they do that?' The boy thought again, he plopped down onto the floor panting and wiping his brow with a nearby towel. He growled and clenched his towel tighter as he suddenly got the urge to throw his racket across the room.

"Those jerks!" He said feeling hot tears fill his eyes. "It's not fair!" He cried out, furiously wiping away the tears. He threw the towel away from him and while trying to keep his balance, furiously stood up.

"Ah, there you are, I've been looking for you." Kirihara's olive colored eyes grew small and he quickly turned to meet the… eye lids of his senpai.

"Ya-Yanagi-senpai…" Kirihara spoke backing up a little, the older gave a soft smile before walking over to where the abandoned tennis balls lay.

"By the look of this wall, it looks like you're quite furious about something, Akaya-kun." Yanagi said picking up each ball at a slow pace. Kirihara frowned, he wasn't exactly in the mood to talk about what he was so upset about.

"Maybe," Kirihara spoke quietly, "but I'm not telling you what it is!" Yanagi chuckled at the statement.

"I wasn't asking to know, I was just simply observing what I have found out." Kirihara pouted and looked down.

"It's…" Yanagi looked up at the other still in the midst of picking up the third ball, the data collector grinned finding it funny how often the boy would just give in even though Yanagi would say the same 'I was just saying what I observed line' for everything when he wanted to get something out of the seaweed head. "It's buchou and fuku-buchou…" He spoke quietly placing his hands together, "I mean-,"

"I know," Yanagi interrupted, "You're upset because you like one of them and they went on a date together tonight?" Kirihara slowly nodded until he actually figured out just what his senpai had said.

"Wait what? Eew no!" Yanagi looked surprised , that was usually the case for these types of things. "I'm P'OD because what buchou and Fukubuchou are telling me is that they spend the rest of their day goofing off and having a good time, while I'm stuck practicing!" he sobbed, "I want to get better than them and beat them at tennis! But I don't want it to be because they haven't been practicing, I want them to practice as much as I do so it will be a fair fight!" He said plopping himself onto the ground, finally giving in and throwing his racket on the floor. "It's not fair!" He screamed.

Yanagi placed a smile on his face, that was an even better answer than the one he had come up with (though some others may disagree).

"Ah is that so?" Kirihara sniffed and nodded.

"Yeah… I have no idea how you came up with that, eew, me and buchou? That's like… just wrong!" Yanagi chuckled.

"Is that so?" He asked, looking down at the shorter one.

"Yeah that's like… incest!" Yanagi was a little surprised at what the other had said before he burst into laughter startling the other one. "What's so funny?" He asked, Kirihara was absolutely serious, that wasn't something to laugh out. As Kirihara thought that fact over, Yanagi was thinking how he would definitely be telling Yukimura what the younger one had said sometime soon.

- (Niou's house, Niou's Room, 1:00 A.M.)

The clock struck one and Niou frowned, he couldn't sleep. He hated not being able to, especially when one of the main reasons was because you were too hot or your bed was uncomfortable. But this time, neither of those were one of the reasons.

Niou slowly thought over the events that took place today, mostly the events that happened between him and Marui. Though the whole pushing the kid that made fun of Kirihara into the locker was pretty funny and that was something else he couldn't get it out of his mind.

Niou turned and buried his face into his pillow, everything was going so well for him and Marui at first. They had found their secret spot and had the best time making up plans together, and then his own stupidness had to go and ruin it all. He wasn't even sure why he said that to him about the whole, everyone is just going to dump you, he knew it would hurt his feelings even though that was the last thing he ever wanted to do, to hurt Marui's feelings that is. Niou was maybe cold at times but believe or not he cared more about his friends than almost anything else.

He wasn't even sure why the whole him looking for boyfriends irritated him so much, he believed that maybe it was because he didn't want to be replaced, he was Marui's friend for a very long time, he was probably afraid that he would lose the chubby, girly, wimpy boy that he claimed for a best friend.

"But I shouldn't be worried because that won't happen… right?" He sighed and quickly threw himself off of his bed landing on the floor with a thump. "I MUST CALL HIM!" He declared quickly grabbing at his phone that was on top of the table beside his bed. He pressed in familiar numbers and placed the phone next to his ear waiting for a response from the other line. And he got one.

…**I support YukimuraxAkaya at times… but at the same time I do kind of find it like incest I mean come on, Akaya is Yukimura's baby~ ^^ *blushes* Hurr hurr hurr, Cliffhanger… sort of… okay not really :\ Anyway do you think I should make this a romance fic? Or just keep it friendship. After looking over this story I realized I categorized it as friendship so I was probably going for a friendship thing (yes I forgot if I was or not XD) Well anyway tell me what you guys think. ^-^ Ah and I just realized that this is a short chapter *sniff* I don't like short chapters! X(**


	8. Chapter 8

"**NIOU MASAHARU!**" Niou jumped at the 'too frightening for most people to handle' voice.

"Bu-Buchou?" He asked in total shock.

"What do you think you're doing calling at this hour?" Yukimura asked, anger obvious in his voice.

"I-I don't know anymore." He replied, being totally honest, he really had no idea what was going on anymore, he was sure he called his best friend and pretty sure not his buchou… did they switch numbers or something?

In the distance he heard a mumbling noise and then the yell of 'buchou give me my phone!' before there was a lot of clatter then some panting sounds as the phone settled.

" 'ello?" Niou frowned, extremely confused by this point.

"Marui?"

"What are you doing calling my phone at… one o' clock in the morning?" Oh yeah, Niou forgot that it was still the middle of the night.

"I think the real question here is, what are you doing sleeping when it's only one o' clock in the morning!" Niou knew Marui was giving him a look that said 'how stoopid can you get?' but continued anyway. "Anyway, I wanted to talk to you, obviously." There was a silence.

"Go to sleep Niou." Niou rapidly shook his head.

"NO! I really want to talk to you, plus I can't get to sleep! Also I have a question that must be answered right now!" Marui sighed.

"What is it?"

"What's Buchou doing there?" Another silence.

"To be completely honest with ya… I'm not exactly sure…" Niou gasped at what the other had said.

"Are you serious? Well answer this, are you at your house, or buchou's?" There was another silence then a sigh.

"Once again, I don't really know." Niou's mouth flew open.

"O-Okay then, answer this," Niou cleared his throat, probably just to sound professional, "are your pants pulled down to your ankles?" Another silence.

"You're so weird!" Marui yelled after the silence, Niou had to hold back a laugh that almost flew out.

"This is a serious question!" He said, trying to smooth his voice so no laughs would escape.

"I'm pretty sure they're on all the way." Niou breathed slowly for a second before replying.

"Well did you check?" Niou asked, beginning to rub his leg to give him something else to do so he could concentrate. There was a ruffling noise and a grunt as, Niou guessed, Marui sat up to look under the covers. A sigh of content filled the phone and a thump.

"Yep, they're on." Niou heard the sound of his buchou's voice again, he was talking, he said 'what the heck are you doing?' At that moment Niou couldn't hold it anymore, he burst into a fit of laughter that would probably wake up all neighbors including Marui's as well.

"OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ACTUALLY CHECKED!" He said laughing some more, he knew Marui was probably blushing like mad now.

"St-Stupid Niou, go to bed!" the pink head yelled.

"Wait, wait I was just kidding jeez~" Niou said, now trying to breath. "Anyway really, what is buchou doing there?" Marui sighed.

"I already told you I don't know!" 'let me talk to him' came from the background.

"No Marui, I don't want to talk to buchou, stay on the phone!" Niou whimpered, he really didn't want Buchou's voice to be lingering around in his head while he was trying to go to sleep.

"Buchou, I'm trying to talk." Marui said, "Anyway, don't talk to me I'm still mad at you from tonight." Niou frowned.

"I said I was sorry!"

"Sometimes that just doesn't cut it."

"Cut what?" Niou could mentally see Marui face palm.

"Good bye Niou." Before Niou could even yell out 'Wait!' the phone had shut off, signaling that the other had hung up. He sighed and looked down; it looked like he would have to make it up to him somehow.

Niou leaned back onto his bed, doing what Marui had said to do and was about to go to sleep, different thoughts of how to make it up to Marui floating around in his mind.

- (Marui's house, Marui's Room, 1: … 39...?)

Marui sat there looking at the phone, he was sitting up in his bed now the covers of ecstasy lying only on his legs. He sighed and threw the cell phone down onto the bed, he figured he would just look for it in the morning, he didn't feel like moving to put it on the table.

Yukimura was watching the pink heads' every move, as if he was sucking the thoughts out of his head.

"Oh, sorry about that, you can go back to sleep now." Marui said, eyeing his buchou suspiciously as if the other would make some kind of sudden move that he wouldn't like.

"What happened tonight?" Yukimura asked, still watching him. Marui looked confused.

"Well… I came home to find my buchou randomly sitting in my room watching divorce court and-,"

"No I mean before that, well I'm guessing it was before that anyway." Marui frowned, it seemed his buchou was talking about when he was at Niou's house.

"Oh well um," Marui sucked in a breath, "Niou said something stupid…" Yukimura chuckled.

"Again?" Marui nodded.

"Yep, again." Yukimura smiled at him.

"Well you do know that usually when he says something stupid, we all can't help but forgive him anyway, even Sanada can't help it at times." Marui chuckled.

"Him and his stupid baby face skills." The two chuckled a little at that.

"Seriously, just the other day, he broke one of my new flower pots that I had to decorate the clubroom with, but I just couldn't stay mad at him for long, it's sort of like Akaya." Marui nodded.

"I know, I know."

A silence passed the two, each one wondering just when the other was going to speak and trying to decide if they should speak or wait until the other starts.

"Anyway," Yukimura started figuring that he should be the one to break the silence, "What _actually _happened with Niou?" Marui frowned again, he didn't really feel like thinking it, but he figured that Yukimura was actually being nice tonight and he should just take advantage of it while he could.

"Well… I went to his house tonight after we left school, and I got up to check my um… you know, dating website account to see if anyone sent me a message and… someone did, and I was happy about it, but…" Marui felt a pang of hurt enter his heart and felt as the ends of his mouth started dragging down. "Well um.. He said that, why even bother because they would probably, just dump me anyway." Marui jumped when he felt a finger on his cheek. He quickly looked over to see Yukimura giving him a look of sympathy.

"Don't cry Marui…" Marui quickly wiped a rolling tear away.

"I'm not, I-I I have allergies…" Yukimura chuckled.

"Right okay then." Marui let out a large breath.

"But whatever, I'm okay now, I'm not worried about it, it's just Niou anyway, heh…. What does he know?" Yukimura frowned at Marui who was now beginning to cover himself up once more.

"Bunta…" Marui flinched, the first name, it either meant you were in big trouble or Yukimura wanted to have a serious chat with you.

"Yes…?" he asked, trying to blow his nose so that it wouldn't sound as stuffy.

"I'm your buchou." Marui looked around.

"Um… yeah?" Yukimura sighed and pressed himself against him, Marui was uncomfortable to say the least, he actually began to feel his hair begin to prick up on his head and neck.

"I'm here for you to talk to," He said, "tell me how you feel, mother says that I'm a great therapist." Marui sighed and decided that he should just get used to Yukimura's arms around his waist, he obviously wasn't going to leave anytime soon.

"Well it's just…" Marui started looking down at his pillow and poking dents into it watching them pop up again. "I… I feel bad…" he whispered, his voice was beginning to hurt and break up a little. "I mean, am I just a loser or something? I mean come on, I'm on a freaking dating website! Isn't that because no one at school likes me?" Yukimura sighed, he wanted to cry just from seeing his friend so upset. Marui sniffed and wiped his running nose. "Great, now I have snot on my hand."

Yukimura sighed and sat up, quickly getting off the bed he walked to Marui's door and walked out, a few minutes later he came back with a handful of tissue.

"Here." He said, holding out the tissue to Marui, Marui turned around and quickly took the tissue muttering a quiet thank you. Marui then let out a light chuckle.

"I… I don't know why I'm so upset over this actually…" He spoke, softly dabbing at his wet cheeks, "I mean, even I know it's true.. That I'm just going to get dumped." Yukimura frowned at what the tensai of Rikkai had just said.

"Marui, don't talk like that, do you want me to stick your head down a toilet?" Marui immediately sucked in his breath.

"Sorry." Yukimura sighed.

"Marui, if you keep up that attitude then you _are _going to get dumped," Marui looked down at his hands, "stay perked up and happy, don't think about what others say to you _especially _not Niou." Marui smiled, just a little anyway, "also about Niou, he's probably just saying that because you two have been friends for a long time right? Well he's probably just worried about you or something." Marui gave Yukimura one of those 'what are you talking about?' looks.

"Niou? Worried about me? Pssh, yeah right." Yukimura smiled.

"Yeah, right." Marui rolled his eyes and began pulling up his covers.

"Okay then, whatever you say…. _buchou_." Yukimura glared at him as he turned his back on him as he laid down. Yukimura mentally sighed and laid back onto the bed as well. There was a still silence in the room but neither was asleep. "… Honky-tonk." Yukimura blinked, absolutely confused at what just came out of the other's mouth.

"… E-Excuse me?" There was a short silence before the other answered back.

"Oh yeah, you're not Niou, never mind…" Yukimura quietly scoffed.

"You two are so weird." Marui smiled softly.

"You know it…" he replied before letting out a giant yawn, "night, buchou…" He spoke, closing his eyes afterwards. Yukimura mumbled something indefinite before falling into a deep slumber.

- (Marui's house, Marui's room, 6:59 A.M)

_Blurry. It was all so blurry. Why… why is it blurry?_

Yukimura's eye was now beginning to focus as he heard something beeping loudly in his ear. What the heck was that? Whatever it was, was going to have a painful death for waking Yukimura up. He saw something red but was still blurry, and that's when he realized something.

_7:00_

Is what the red letters said; Yukimura sat there for a moment, trying to figure out just what the heck those numbers meant, and that's when something in his head ticked, and all hell broke loose.

"SCHOOL!" He screamed jumping out of bed, about to slap the sleeping Marui across the face to wake him up.

"WHAT?" Marui screamed completely freaked out, his eyes were huge, Yukimura would laugh at him if the situation they were in wasn't serious.

"WE LATE! WE HAVE TO GO!" He screamed, flailing his arms around trying to pull on his school uniform and brush his hair at the same time. Let's just say it wasn't working that well.

Marui jumped up off the bed managing to fall flat on his face onto the floor, he pushed himself up sputtering, his face resembling a fish.

"HURRY WE HAVE TO GO BEFORE ALL THE BREAKFAST IS GONE!" He screamed running straight to the door, either not realizing or just not caring that his blanket was tied around his ankle.

"W-wait, what? What are you talking about Marui." Marui began panting as he pointed towards his door.

"Breakfast! Breakfast!" He screamed, "Those little brats for little brothers I have will purposely eat our breakfast if we don't hurry!" He screamed, he opened the door only to have it pushed closed again by Yukimura.

"I'm talking about school, it's seven o' clock and that's not nearly enough time to get ready for school, we need to hurry." Marui glared at him and 'pfft'.

"Who cares? It's school. I'm worried about my freaking breakfast. Forget school." Yukimura's ice cold glare must have changed his opinion because he was now going through his closet picking out his school uniform, a scaredy-cat expression on his face.

"Good boy Marui, my gosh, you are such a fast learning, pfft wait a second, what am I talking about? I'm just the most awesome teacher ever!" Marui pouted.

"Breakfast…" He mumbled as he pulled on his 'now-beginning-to-wrinkle' shirt.

-(Outside, Walkway to school, 7:42 A.M)

"W-WAIT YUKIMURA, I CAN'T BREATHE!" Yukimura looked back at his teammate and frowned.

"Shame on you Marui, 48 laps at practice today!" Marui could have sworn he felt tears begin to roll down his cheeks.

"Buchou! I don't want to die!" Yukimura sighed as he began to slow down his pace.

"It's your fault anyway…" Marui caught up with him and bent down as he tried to breathe correctly once more.

"I sowwy!" He cried out, wiping off his cheeks, "I can't breathe!" Yukimura rolled his eyes. "I want my buubuu!" Yukimura gave him a judgmental look, raising an eyebrow in the process.

"Your stuffed pig?" Marui sniffed and looked up at his buchou with red, puffy eyes.

"Don't judge me…" Yukimura sighed.

"It's a good thing we're almost to the school, I would have been very angry if we were only one block away from your house…" Marui frowned.

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to say that you don't get enough exercise and that I'm actually surprised you've made it almost to the school, and that you haven't passed out yet." Marui pouted.

"mean…"

"BUCHOU!" Yukimura and Marui gave a surprised looked and looked back to see a seaweed head running towards them foam falling everywhere out of his mouth.

"WAH! He's rabid!" Marui screamed quickly hiding behind a smiling Yukimura.

"Hello there Akaya." He spoke softly before reaching out to wipe the toothpaste off his mouth.

"There's a bear chasing me!" He screamed as he made his way behind Yukimura as well, pushing Marui out of the way.

"What are you talking about Akaya?" Akaya whimped.

"A Bear! I was just running down here because I accidentally slept in again and all of a sudden a bear jumped out of a bush and started chasing me!" he whined pushing himself closer to Yukimura.

"Is that so?" He asked, Marui jumped a little as his buchou's eyes became slits. Uh oh, it seemed that bear chose the wrong Kohai to mess with.

At that moment something brown showed up in the distance, it was flowing side to side as if it were dizzy or something. There were also low groans coming from it.

Kirihara let out a high pitched squeal before turning to scamper away. Marui flinched and took a step back, he looked over at Yukimura who did not look amused. The bear began getting closer and Marui was on the verge of running and crapping his pants at the same time. He was absolutely amazed that Yukimura was keeping his ground.

"Bastard…" He growled, clinching his fists.

"… Rawr?" The bear asked cocking his head to the side.

"What, do you have something to say to me?" Yukimura asked glaring at the humungous hairball.

"….Rawr, rawr, rawr!" Yukimura gasped.

"You take that back!" Marui blinked, okay his buchou has finally lost it. "Get over here!" The bear crossed his head and turned his head up in the air.

"Rawr!" Yukimura scowled.

"Don't you ignore me!"

"Yukimura, it's a bear!" Marui said, pointing to the thing with an exasperated look on his face.

"No it's not, it's Niou." Marui blinked, what did he just say? The bear leant back and placed his hands on it's stomach before jumping bouncing up and down as if it were laughing. It then placed it's paws on the side of it's face and…. Managed to pull his head off. Marui flinched at that.

"Wow, you actually thought it was real? You and Kirihara are slow." Niou said, laughing still. Marui frowned.

"Shut up!" Yukimura rolled his eyes.

"Niou, you have a buttload of laps to do today." Niou's mouth flew open.

"What? Why?" Yukimura glared at him.

"Because, do you know how late we are for school now? You're lucky I'm me so that I can easily be accepted into the class, but I don't know about you guys, all I know is that you better get your strength together because you're definitely going to be holding buckets**(1)**." Marui and Niou groaned as they both began running to the school while Yukimura just merely walked, whistling a small tune that he had just completely made up.

- (Rikkaidai, lunch period, whatever time their lunch period is)

Marui sighed as he walked up the steps to Rikkai's roof. He opened the heavy door and peaked out to feel a cool breeze blow onto his face. Marui walked over to the edge of the roof and placed his hands onto the bars that stopped anything/one from falling over, unless they were like really desperate and jumped.

"I FEEL THE WIND THROUGH MY HAIR!" Marui screamed at the top of his lungs startling some people that were on the ground causing him to become the thing to stare at when people didn't find the conversation that they were having with their friends interesting. Or if their conversation was becoming too awkward to the point where one didn't want to look at the other.

"What the heck, Marui?" Marui jumped and looked behind him to see Niou and Jackal walking up to him.

"Jackie!" Marui cried out, attaching himself to his half-Brazilian partner.

"Again with the nickname?" Jackal spoke looking down at the clinging, pink haired, 'tensai'. Marui looked over to Niou who was staring at the two. The trickster grinned and held his arms out only to be ignored by the other.

"Jackie, did ya bring a bento up? I left forgot mine because Yukimura was rushing me." Jackal gave him a strange look.

"Why was he rushing you? Why was he even near you _to _be rushing you?" Marui stared at him and blinked.

"No reason." Jackal sighed and just ignored him, he was used to Marui's weirdness by now. He pulled a Makunouchi bento out of his bag and Marui immediately grabbed it squealing in the process as he dragged Jackal over to the bars of safety and bringing them both down into a sitting position, completely ignoring the white haired one.

Marui opened up the bento and immediately began stuffing his face with rice. Niou frowned at him and walked over and sat down beside Jackal who was now sadly watching as Marui ate his perfectly made lunch.

"Oh, sorry Jackie." Marui said, he grabbed a piece of meat with the chopsticks and brought it up to Jackals mouth, "say 'ah'." Marui said, chuckling a little once he saw a hint of red trailing onto his face.

"D-don't do things like this, especially in public!" Jackal scolded quickly looking away. Marui laughed, unfortunately he was the only one who was amused by what he had done. As Jackal was looking down at his hands refusing to make eye contact with his doubles partner, Niou was glaring at the two. He was pretty sure he was there, why the heck were they going along as if he were invisible?

"Hey Marui, I'll share that bento with ya." Niou teased, he would have been smirking as well if he weren't so ticked off. Marui frowned at him.

"Sorry, it's Jackal's, I'm pretty sure he doesn't want all his food to be eaten." Marui said immediately giving the bento back to Jackal who had a confused expression on his face.

Niou scowled, what the heck was his problem? Was he still upset from this morning or… Niou mentally slapped himself. He realized that he hadn't made it up to Marui yet! He was probably still mad at him for what he had said.

"Marui," Niou spoke, turning himself so he was facing the pink haired boy (actually he was facing Jackal but whatever, he was bent over now anyway), "hey listen… about last night." Marui obviously didn't want to hear it considering that he had just pulled out two cotton balls out of his pockets and stuck them into his ears.

Niou would have laughed at that if it were anyone else Marui was doing it to, but no, he was doing it to _him_, Niou sighed and glared at his friend, if he could still call him that. Niou felt a pang in his chest. 'If he could still call him that'?

"Marui, I think Niou is talking to you, answer him." Jackal said, Niou wondered if this was actually the first time he had 'mentally' thanked the 'wall of defense' for something.

"What?" Marui asked finally looking over at the trickster; Jackal had almost choked on his food at the cold tone in his partner's voice. Niou seemed frozen on what he was about to say, he blinked and a small 'uh' emerged from his throat. Jackal knew something strange was going on but tried his best to ignore it and just continue eating his food.

"Why are you ignoring me?" Niou asked after his voice came back to him. Marui growled at him and threw his bag onto the ground. Jackal, who was startled from the noise of the bag hitting the ground, immediately jumped up and left the roof so the two could deal with whatever was going on it private.

As soon as the door to the rooftop closed Niou reached over and grabbed Marui's wrist before standing up, hauling Marui up with him as well.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?" He asked tugging at his wrist to get it out of the others grip.

"I'm trying to get you to talk to me! Tell me what I need to do so you can forgive me!" Marui stopped struggling and just looked up at Niou, a glare that could kill an ant locked into his eyes.

"Shut up." He said, he gave one last tug and managed to get out of his grip.

"No I'm not going to shut up, tell me what I need to do to get you to forgive me!" Marui growled again and turned his back on the other. He walked over to the end of the rooftop and looked down. "Marui!"

"WHAT? WHAT DO YOU WANT NIOU?" Niou jumped back and quickly held his fists up just out of instincts.

"I…I…" Niou looked down and swallowed the saliva that was entering into his mouth, "I'm sorry… what else can I do? I'm sorry that I said that last night, really I didn't mean it…. I'm sorry." Marui stared at him, his face not changing what-so-ever.

Niou glanced up at him, and scowled.

"I know I'm an asshole okay? I can't really help that at times, sometimes the things that I say… I don't mean to say it, the words just come out without me actually thinking about it, I really didn't mean to say what I did." Marui sighed, "Besides, it's your choice if you want to go meet stran-, I mean, you know." Niou paused for a second trying to get what he was saying together, "I'm sorry…"

Marui swiftly turned and headed for the door, not even sparing a glance at Niou as he walked by.

"You know what Niou…" Marui started, looking down at the handle as he was about to open it, "I've taken a lot of crap from you over the years." Marui started, he sighed, "and each time, I've always forgave you, no matter what it was that you did, I would forgive and forgive and forgive, and what did you do? You went back and hurt me and hurt me and hurt me all over again. Now tell me, why should I forgive you again? Why exactly should I forgive you just so you can go and hurt me all over again?" Niou swallowed, "I could just not forgive you and completely pull myself away from you, not listen to you, not go to your house, just… completely break our relationship in half so I hardly ever see you." Niou's gut wrenched at what he had said. "I could do that Niou, I could do that just so I won't get hurt anymore, unfortunately, I know it seems stupid, but…" Marui turned his body around just a little so he could see him, "I don't want to do that, and I probably never will." Niou felt a small smile of hope form onto his face.

"I'm not going to forgive you right now," Marui continued looking straight at him, "But that doesn't mean I won't, I know I will, god knows if it will take a while or not, but I know, I'll forgive you again." and with that said, Marui slowly opened the door and walked out, leaving the trickster standing there. A smile of desire and determination on his face.

**(1) - A tradition in Japan's schools were that if students disrupted the class they would have to do a humiliating punishment like holding buckets full of water outside of class where everyone could see them, as some of you might have seen in anime (the horror!) I don't think they still do it anymore but they used to :{ **

**Bleh, this chapter was a chapter of crackiness it seems X( DANGIT! *sighs* not to mention seriously not much happened in this chapter, I mean at all. It kind of irks me actually… ah well, I'll try and get more into the next chapter :/.**


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